Facing Up to Things

Originally, when I started karate, there was a heart condition to deal with.  Now there are possible mental health and chest related issues to worry about.  A recent incident brought these to a head (in the form of a panic attack), and now I've got a session to assess my mental health today and a spirometry test later in the month.   Should have guessed at the latter, having been a cigarette smoker for about 36 years before I gave them up 😔

I suppose I have been aware that might be issues for a while but have been somewhat in denial, but seeing the doctor a couple a weeks ago was the start of having to face up to things.   Karate has helped me to stay calm at times I otherwise wouldn't have and has improved my health greatly, but stamina isn't something that's improved as much as I would have liked, still getting short of breath when others don't.   And issues outside of the dojo will need to be faced as well.

Will probably be doing a lot of slow Kata today and deep breathing, but hopefully facing up to things will start here and work out. But it may take a while.

Dojo day: A mix of things

Saturday in the Dojo was a mix of things, from break fall practise as warm up through to Nunchaku kata practise at the end.  I was a bit limited due to problems with my right shoulder, but otherwise was a really good workout 😊.

After the break fall practise, with roll throughs into fighting stance and floor kicking positions, was the usual stretching.  From there, we went on to our current core theme, the quadrant drill, practised in a slightly different way.  Firstly, we did it as a solo drill, as the attacker, then we went on to practise the elements and finally the full drill with different partners.

After that, it was looking it Naihanchi-based movements that turn into throws.  This was good for me, as I don't practise this anywhere near enough.  We covered shoulder throws, hip throws and over the leg throws (the step past and rotate your upper body to strike kind).  I'm quite tall, so it was a challenge, but did manage to lift at least one partner into a throwing position. 😊  When it came to trying doing it as whatever comes into your head though it was a bit of a mess as I didn't remember enough of the techniques 😕

The overall conclusion is that I need to get closer, with a lower centre of gravity and concentrate in getting "under" my partner's centre of gravity to make the hip and shoulder  throws work and more practise at these techniques in general.

The last part of the lesson was Nunchaku, practising the Hamahiga kata.  It's quite complicated, but I think I did a bit better than the first time is was introduced to me 😊.  Again though lots of practising to do this summer.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable session 😊😊

A Short introduction

Hi, just a little background about myself: I'm Robert or Bob if you prefer, 58  and approximately 2 years ago was told I had a heart condition.  It was hereditary and my father had died from it, and for a while I went into my shell 😟

Then through a love of wrestling I share with my son, and his starting Karate, I found Karate.  I kicked back against the sinking feeling I had and tried to do something positive 😃

I thought it might be good for me and maybe even helpful to others to share my journey in blog form.  So will be posting here to see how things go.  Thank you for reading this and hope you enjoy 😃

Comments and questions welcomed.

Robert, March 2019

A Nerd post: Potted Karate Okinawa style.

A few posts I read recently set me to thinking as to what styles of Karate could be called Okinawan, or have definable roots that are Okinowan.   I was already aware that Karate is a relatively modern term, and that locally the teachings were originally referred to by the place of origin, followed by "Te" or "martial skills" in English.

So, originally there was Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and Tomari-Te.  I was aware that the form of Karate I study, Shorin-Ryu, had its roots in Shuri-Te, from an earlier post I did.  The family tree I ended up with (not formally verified, hence some of the "possible" links) is:

However, the styles derived from the other Te styles, I had not looked into.  A quick search of Wikipedia gave the following, which I have summarised in table format, for ease of comparison:

Village	Shuri	Naha	Tomari
Type of location	Capital	Commercial	Port
Root style	Shuri-Te	Naha-Te	Tomari-Te
Style most associated	Shōrin-ryū	Gōjū-ryū	No specific style
Cited founder	Chosin Chibana	Chojun Miyagi	N/A
Other  masters of root style	Sakukawa Kanga Matsumura Sōkon Itosu Ankō Asato Ankō Chōyū Motobu Motobu Chōki Yabu Kentsū Chōmo Hanashiro Funakoshi Gichin Kyan Chōtoku Mabuni Kenwa Tōyama Kanken Tatsuo Shimabuku	Arakaki Seishō Higaonna Kanryō Kyoda Jūhatsu Mabuni Kenwa Uechi Kanbun	Matsumora Kōsaku Oyadomari Kokan Motobu Chōki Kyan Chōtoku Nakasone Seiyu
Other related styles	Shotokan Shitō-ryū  Shudokan Shōrinji-ryū Gensei-ryu    Motobu-ryū	Uechi-ryū Ryūei-ryū Shito-ryu Tōon-ryū	Wado-ryu Motobu-ryū Matsubayashi-ryu Shōrinji-ryū
Main Kata	Naihanchi Pinan Kūsankū Passai Jion Jitte Rohai Chinto Gojushiho	Sanchin Saifā Seiunchin Shisochin Seipai Seisan Sanseru Tensho Kururunfa Suparinpei	Naihanchi (Koshiki) Eunibu Rōhai Wanduan Passai (Tomari) Chinsu Chinpu Wankan Wanshū Seisan Jumu Nichin Juma Ananku

I shouldn't have been surprised, but many of the styles seem to be derivative of more than one of the Te styles. Cross referencing the Tomari-Te based styles, most seem to be derived from Shuri-Te as well.  Matsubashi-Ryu, which Wiki gives as Tomari-Te, is definitely also a form of Shorin-Ryu. Wado-Ryu, which is cited as a Tomari-Te style, appear to have originated in Japan, founded in 1934 by Hironori Ohtsuka.

The ageshio web site:

https://www.ageshiojapan.com/okinawa-karate/styles.html

offers up Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu (Chibana), Shorin-Ryu (Shudokan), Uechi-Ryu and Matsubash-Ryu as extanct forms of Okinawan Karate, which can still be studied in Okinawa.  I am sure this is by no means a definitive list, any more than the Wiki results are definitive, but it does give a marker of the styles which give a good representation of what Okinawan Karate is all about 😊

Keeping calm in times of stress

I am not the brightest of people, or blessed with great common sense, but some lessons learnt in Karate have definitely come in handy in the last week or so.  Due to multiple factors, I got one thing in place recently, and all the other things I needed to do came crashing in on me.

Previously, I would have tried to muddle through.  This time, I took a deep breath and listened to my wife and my family.  There was a lot going on that had caused stress, so I took a time out.  During the time out (backed up by my Doctor), I spent more time in the Dojo, and the change of tack allowed me time to put things into perspective.

Still managed to mess up though 😞 My wife suggested a common goal of sharing a Bearded Dragon (that's our Falkor in the pic), and she found a possible one on pets4sale.  I wanted to get it as soon as possible, so instead of listening to her suggestion of visiting first, I arranged for the then owners to deliver.  Bad mistake, poor Falkor and the Viv he came in were riddled with mites.

However, since I had paid cash and we hadn't noticed when he arrived, it was time to fight for him.  Deep breaths and stay calm time, we are doing everything we can, but I'm a plodder not a steam train.  But I can now stay calm and focus, and so far, we and he are still in there fighting.

Then today I had my phone stolen.  Through circumstances I wouldn't normally have, I ended up losing my phone in the back of the cab.  It only took me 15 minutes to notice, and again deep breaths I managed to do the right things, phoning the company to cancel the Sim, phoning the police and using Google to lock the phone. The frightening thing is that Google can even give you "potentially" the address of the thief.

She took the phone out of the cab when she found it, rather then giving it to the cab driver.  I phoned the phone, and she asked for a reward.  When I didn't offer what she wanted she turned it off.  But for me, I manged to stay calm where previously I probably wouldn't have.  

Can't prove this is down to Karate, but I think so.

In the Dojo: Core and Flow

The Thursday session in the Dojo was a low key affair, a lot of the time I was working with my son, as the only other students were another family pair, mother and daughter.  Stretches, Kata, and a particular "sticky hands" drill were memorable from that session.

Today's session in the Dojo was somewhat different:  I was wary of today as it was the first time I have ever done 5 consecutive sessions, and have been running low on stamina in some of them, but I needn't have worried.  We started off with core strengthening exercises (the shrimp, back breakfall and shrimp escape, front breakfalls, back breakfalls and rolls, forward rolls) and for the first time I managed to try the whole lot. 😊😊😊

After that, was a run through the fundamentals, punches, receiving, kicks and other stuff, such as hisa-geri, shuto and uke.  And then on to flow drills.  The quadrant drill presented (but not named) in an earlier blog was the core of the work, but we practised in in segments to start off with, firstly on the pads and then with our partner.  Each segment was done with a different partner.   The drill as a whole is presented again here for the sake of completeness:


#1   LH jab                        #2 RH parry, head to right
#1  RH cross                     #2 LH parry, head to left
#1   LH hook                    #2 Step in, two handed upper arm block and spread (Nidan)
#1  RH hammer fist         #2 Step back, cross arm block
#1  LH hook                     #2 Step in, two handed upper arm block, inc LH shuto to neck
#1  RH hook                     #2 Step back to cat stance, LH block
#1  LH backfist               #2 RH receive   
#1  Forearm  strike         #2 Naihanchi block, LH palm up RH palm down
#1  LH uppercut to ribs #2 RH Gedan Uke
#1 RH uppercut to ribs   #2 LH Gedan Uke
#1 LH haito to neck
#1 RH haito to neck
#1 grasp behind neck, using thumbs as 5th finger (gable lock)
#1 pull head down  switch leg back
#1 left knee strike
#1 switch legs, right knee strike
                                        #2 Head up, break out, link hands
#1 head butt

This was followed by the sticky hands drill as done in the Thursday lesson, with a partner inside block to inside block then base of hand to base of  hand and keep swapping wrist grasps.  Done firstly RH to RH, then LH to LH.  

We finished off with 10 minutes of pad work, followed by Naihanchi Shodan to warm down, a thoroughly challenging but fun lesson 😊😊😊

Stretched out (on the rack)

Waking up this morning, was aching in places I hadn't really ached before.  The Monday night session had been tough as it was hot and sweaty, which saps me quicker than other conditions and had needed more breaks than I usually do nowadays.  The aches afterwards though were as if had been stretched out, as I imagine, on a rack.

I tried to think back through the lesson as to what might have caused the aches: We did fundamentals (punches, receiving, kicks), a lot of Kata practice, pad work and Nunchaku.  The latter was fun, but as it was only the second time I had used them, might have resulted in some bruises and soreness.

There was nothing there that should have caused the stiffness, then my my mind went back to the stretches and I think I found the cause.   Our Sensei have started introducing different stretches, and two in particular stood out:

1)   Linking arms with partner,
      back to back walk down to sitting position,
      partner one leans forward, whilst partner two arches 
      back, so is stretched out on back of partner one,
      hold for 10 seconds,
      back to sitting position,
      partner two and one swap roles in stretch, partner one
      on back of partner two and hold for 10 seconds,
      back to sitting position
      back to back walk up

2)  Linking arms back to back with partner
      partner one squats and leans forward,
      partner two arches and is pulled back, until body
      weight is supported by partner one
      partner one does 1o squat lifts......

I didn't manage stretch number two beyond trying to get my partner onto my back as partner one, and my partner managing a couple of squats with difficulty due to my shifting body weight as partner two.  Am certain though that these two stretches are the guilty ones for this morning's aches 😊😊

Life has a habit....

Of not letting you off the hook 😕  Just as I thought something had gone right for me, a problem cropped up that I couldn't cope with 😞  On it's own, it could and possibly can be sorted but with a slow build up of things at home, work, with family and with health, things finally took their toll  😞

I was having difficulty in breathing and had pains in my upper back, so called the non-emergency number, but ended up with a paramedic anyway.  My vital signs came back ok, but with my history,  I was told to see my doctor as soon as possible.  I got to see a locum that day, who booked a bloods test for me and put me down for a spirometry test. She said the shortness of breath and pains could be stress related,  but left it at that.

My wife and family told me to get a second check, and got an appointment with our regular doctor the following day, who is aware of all the issues at play family and healthwise.  As a result, I'm signed off for a week, so will be time to focus on my family and Karate for a while to destress, and get some of the issues sorted if I can.

Karate in times like this, for me forms an anchor point 😌.  It gives a release to tensions and the opportunity to work out frustrations in a safe environment.  I went to both the Thursday and Saturday classes this week: Thursday was about Kata and the previous Saturday's flow drill with breakouts.  Today's lesson had  core exercises, Kata, pad work, basic drills and a few elements i can't even remember.  

Normally, I would be annoyed with myself that I couldn't remember the core elements of what we did.  Today however that's ok.  The taking part and being with family and friends was the most important part 😊

Flowing in the Dojo

Today was a challenging day in the dojo, but an interesting one too.  From a personal point of view, not at my best due to things going on around me.  So not enough sleep and a bit too much stress make for a not too sharp me, but I tried to work through it.

We did a slightly different warm up today, with some different stretches, then in to basics.   We went through all the punches, kicks and receiving techniques, then started to look at a relatively new drill.

We worked through it stage by stage, both with and without pads.  Once a particular element was covered, it was added to the flow drill.  After that, at each point we needed to repeat the key elements just looked at, then perform the flow drill from the start to the point we had just got to.  

At the end point of the main lesson, each pair was asked to perform the flow drill to see how much we had learnt.  I lost it round about the forearm strike.  The full drill is given in outline below; thank you Ben for the corrections 😊😊.

#1   LH jab                 #2 RH parry, head to right
#1  RH cross                 #2 LH parry, head to left
#1   LH hook                 #2 Step in, two handed upper arm block and spread (Nidan)
#1  RH hammer fist         #2 Step back, cross arm block
#1  LH hook                 #2 Step in, two handed upper arm block, inc LH shuto to neck
#1  RH hook                 #2 Step back to cat stance, LH block
#1  LH backfist         #2 RH receive   
#1  Forearm  strike         #2 Naihanchi block, LH palm up RH palm down
#1  LH uppercut to ribs #2 RH Gedan Uke
#1 RH uppercut to ribs #2 LH Gedan Uke
#1 LH haito to kneck
#1 RH haito to kneck
#1 grasp behind kneck, using thumbs as 5th finger (gable lock)
#1 pull head down  switch leg back
#1 left knee strike
#1 switch legs, right knee strike
                        #2 Head up, break out, link hands

#1 head butt

The drill was both challenging and fun 😊😊.  For the last part of the lesson we did bo work, the first 6 kihon katas.  As there were a good few people, we had to split into two groups to accommodate us all, but it was fun.  So much so, that me and my son went to the park later to practice.  Here i am doing kihon Katas Godan and Rokadan (badly but enthusiastically) 😊😊.

Hope you enjoyed 🙏

The Predator drill

The Predator drill is something that we do occasionally in my dojo.  In it's usual form, it is one head guard wearing person (to represent the Predator status) stalking, whilst the other students circle round.  The Predator tries to grapple different students in turn, and if he or she can hold on for 3 seconds, that student is out of the drill.

The drill continues until there is only one student left.  That student is declared the winner, and the drill then restarts with another person donning the Predator  head guard.  This usually goes on for three of four rounds, to give a few people the chance to play that role.

The purpose of the drill is to teach people the value and practice the various techniques of breaking away in self defence.  In this Saturday's session though, we did I slightly different version of the drill, to practice Naihanchi based techniques to defend against two attackers.

Key elements that could be used included "crashing", elbow strikes, knee strikes, arm pulls, and rotating the first attacker to use as a shield.  "Crashing" is the use of the first part of Naihanchi Shodan, to close distance with the attacker with arms covering the head to prevent strikes.  Has to be done so that you can keep watching the attacker whist crashing into them elbows first.

Two of the senior students took on the role of dual predators, whilst all the other students got the chance to practice their techniques.  There were no set rules as to what to try, but as we had been doing Naihanchi drills, these were the ones were upmost in our minds.  Here is my effort.

The drill was both helpful and enjoyable, I think I learned something from it.  It seemed to get a positive response from the other students too 😊😊😊